Remember the days when the Galaxy and Houston would play for the MLS championship?

Oh, that was only last November?

Today’s rematch of the MLS Cup won by the Galaxy means nothing to a team that is winless in its last six matches (0-4-2) and tripped over a two-goal lead en route to a 3-2 loss at home to San Jose on Wednesday.

The play of the Galaxy (3-7-2, 11 points), in last place in the Western Conference, prompted what may be the understatement of the year by Houston coach Dominic Kinnear.

“It does raise some eyebrows with the way they’ve started,” Kinnear said this week.

Houston (3-3-4, 13 points) hasn’t exactly caught fire either, but the Dynamo have a win and two ties in their last three games and face a Galaxy team without Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane and Hector Jimenez, the young midfielder who played so well Wednesday before picking up a red card.

Not only is Jimenez suspended for today’s game in the Galaxy’s first visit to BBVA Compass Stadium, Major League Soccer added a game to his suspension and fined him an undisclosed amount of money for his studs-up tackle on San Jose’s Steven Beitashour.

The Galaxy are hoping blowing a 2-0 goal in the final 15 minutes of the game – even if they were down a man with Jimenez’s ejection – is not too difficult to bounce back from.

“I don’t think it will be just because of the character we showed, the effort we put into the game,” midfielder David Beckham said. “Overall it felt like it was a better team performance, one of the better performances of the season.

“When you’re on a run like this, sometimes you need a little bit of a break and a little bit of luck. It’s hard to sit here and say it, but we haven’t had that in certain games. We’ll be fine. We’ll bounce back. It’s good to have a tough game on the weekend so soon.

“Hopefully we’ll be good.”

Coach Bruce Arena praised his team for its play without Donovan and Keane, but he also understands the predicament the Galaxy are in a little more than one-third of the way through the season.

“You’ve got to get going,” he said. “It’s a character test, it’s a challenge in leadership. I think you’re a good leader when things aren’t going well. It’s easy to lead when things are going great.

“We’ll see the character of our players and our coaching staff.”

Still looking

Trying to pinpoint what the Galaxy need to turn their season around has been difficult to pinpoint from the outset.

The loss of defender Omar Gonzalez, the lack of finishing at times, forward Edson Buddle’s struggles to fit in in his return, midfield play in transition, injuries and any number of issues have tormented the Galaxy.

“There’s a lot of head-scratching going on, but it’s important for us to know that we’ve got to learn from our mistakes and build on the performance we had,” defender Todd Dunivant said. “Because it was a good performance.

“We’ll see how we respond but we have to take it the right way and realize we played very well. We just have to learn how to close a game. Unfortunately, we haven’t been in that position enough this year.”

Another setback

For the second time this season, forward Adam Cristman has been placed on the disabled list with a concussion. He will have to miss six regular-season games but is eligible to play in exhibitions and the U.S. Open Cup.

The Galaxy begin Open Cup play on Tuesday against the Carolina RailHawks in Cary, N.C.

Now that’s the ideal matchup for the Galaxy. The RailHawks are the reigning North American Soccer League (NASL) champions, but are 0-4-5 this season.

If the Galaxy advance, they could face Chivas USA in a fourth-round game at Home Depot Center on June 5.